When the Owl met the Lion
by quiet-heart
Summary: After the events in Blood in Paradise, Dabi's world shattered, as loved ones died or left, due to circumstances beyond her control. And all Gibbs could do was wait and watch as his daughter struggled to find her way again. But then one night, the owl met the lion. Formerly titled And A Star To Steer Her By, complete revision.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Deaf Girl's here again," Tom said to Leonard 'Leo' Benson, who was one of the gym's trainers, specifically in the area of kickboxing.

"Her name's Dabi, not Deaf Girl, and she would kick your ass if she ever saw you saying that," Leo shot back, watching as the young woman signed in to the gym log book before heading for the locker room. "And quite frankly, I hope she does."

"You got the hots for her," Tom sneered.

"Doesn't matter. You're being a jerk, and you're just mad that she won't even acknowledge you, never mind look at you," Leo shot back, heading for the kickboxing part of the gym, where he knew Dabi was going to go, just as she had for pretty much every other night for the past month.

Leo didn't know what was going on with the pretty young woman, but he suspected she was hurting. She never offered anything more than her name or general politeness, and ignored anyone when they tried flirting with her, if she didn't stare at them coldly, that is.

So far, she hadn't done that to Leo, but that might have had to do with the fact that he knew sign language.

"Hey," he signed, when she came out of the locker rooms, changed, and ready. She nodded, and he helped her put her gloves on. "What do you want to work on tonight?"

"Nothing in particular," she said, shrugging, not really looking at him.

Something was wrong. Like more wrong than usual. "Hey," he said, tapping her hand. When she looked up at him, he signed, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

He saw a flash of grief in her eyes, and then the shutters came down. "Nothing I want to talk about," she said.

"Fair enough. But if you ever need a friend, I've got some pretty big shoulders," he signed, giving her a goofy smile. It worked, and she smiled slightly. It was a slight smile, but a smile nethertheless.

"I know," she said. "Right now I want to focus on this." _This_ was the punching bag in front of them. And for the next hour, she beat the hell out of it, working hard, until she was nearly on her knees, panting.

And then he saw it; tears rolling down her face amid the sweat. But they were gone when she wiped her face with the towel.

And half an hour later, he was confronting a group of guys who were trying to get handsy with Dabi outside of the gym. Leo lived above the gym, as part of a rental agreement with the owner, and had stepped out to get some cat food for his cat, Rocky, who was guaranteed to make his life a living hell if he didn't get his breakfast.

He turned the corner of the building in time to see Dabi breaking the nose of one of the three guys surrounding her, but was unable to avoid the swing from the other guy, which sent her reeling.

And Leo stepped in. Now, he knew Dabi was capable of handling herself, with what she had been taught, but he was bigger and a whole lot stronger, and he had brothers whom he had tangled with in group fights like this before. He knew how to fight really dirty; Dabi might not. Either way, a few of his own punches and kicks sent the gang running.

"Hey, we meet again," he said, helping her up off the ground. She flinched when he touched her face, where she now had a split lip.

"I'm fine," she said.

"Yeah, you are, but we still need to take a look at that lip of yours," he said. "My apartment is upstairs." When she hesitated, he said, "It's perfectly safe. I won't hurt you; I promise."

"Said the spider to the fly," she groused.

"Trust issues?"

"Much."

Leo smiled. "I understand, especially with what just happened. I'll tell you what; I will leave my door unlocked and you can sit within sight of it. I will even introduce you to my cat, Rocky. Which reminds me; I need to get cat food or I'm screwed."

Dabi Moore-Gibbs studied her rescuer-slash-trainer curiously. Leo was different, standing over a head taller than she did, with dirty blonde hair that constantly looked like he'd stepped into a wind machine without a helmet on, and brown eyes that looked as if they could see right through her. He was muscular, which she knew because of all the times she'd worked out with him in the gym, but it wasn't the show-off type muscular that some guys did. His shape was the natural result of kick boxer training and whatever else it was that he did that didn't seem to involve weights. He also had a Marine tattoo on one shoulder, but she hadn't asked him about that.

He was right about one thing; something was wrong, but he was also wrong. Something had been wrong for weeks.

A month and a half ago, Dabi had been the victim of a kidnapping by a gun runner by the name of Arboreal Omen, and had found herself in Oahu with no memory and a dead man on her hands, courtesy of her own two hands and the knife she'd had with her at the time. She had survived, gotten her memory back, but lost a friend in the process. She had come home a changed young woman.

Her boyfriend, Eric Armstrong, had noticed something was different about her, noticed that she was holding back and not responding to him the way she had before. She couldn't. Not after Tommy. Not after Carl Thames. And right now, not after losing her grandfather.

She had lost him three weeks ago, and the wounds were still as raw as ever.

_Three weeks ago:_

"_Help! Pop-pop's in trouble! He can't breathe and his chest hurts!_" was the frantic message Special Agent Gibbs got on his phone earlier that week. Ignoring Vance and SecNav Sarah Porter, with whom he'd been in a meeting with, Gibbs tore out of the room, only just hearing Vance yell after him.

"I want a report later, Gibbs!"

"_Where?_" Gibbs texted.

"_Bakery! Hurry! The ambulance is on its way! Get Ducky please!_"

Gibbs was rapidly dialing for the medical examiner when the elevator doors whooshed open. It was Abby and she had her phone to her ear.

"Gibbs! Pop-pop is in trouble!" Abby said, frantically.

"I just got the same message," Gibbs said, getting into the elevator. "You calling Ducky?"

"He's on his way, said he'll meet us at my truck," she said.

"Make it mine," said Gibbs.

"You catch that, Ducky?" Abby asked. There was an apparent affirmative, because Abby hung up.

They made it to the Kranz Bakery in record time, only to see an ambulance there, with no lights flashing, and the doors open.

"I have a really bad feeling about this," Abby whimpered.

They tore inside, while Ducky stopped to talk to the paramedics. In the back area there was the feeling of stunned silence. People were huddled around, some crying quietly, others whispering amongst themselves, like they were afraid to raise their voices.

"What happened?" Gibbs demanded to a worker. "Where's Dabi and Sharee?"

"They're in the back," said the worker, wiping her eyes.

"And Daniel?" Abby asked hesitantly.

The worker shook her head, wiping her tear-streaked eyes. "They're saying it was a heart attack. He just suddenly clutched his chest, said it hurt, and he couldn't breathe."

Gibbs tore into the back room, where the office usually was, pushing and shoving as he needed to, to get to his daughter.

Daniel was on the floor, his shirt open, and tubes and wires on him, eyes closed, and still as death. Dabi and Sharee were seated on the couch, arms around each other tightly. Sharee was sobbing, but what got Gibbs was the blank look on Dabi's face.

Daniel was gone. And Dabi's world was shattered once again.

Somehow Gibbs got them out of the office and upstairs to their home. The paramedics would remove Daniel's body and take him to the hospital for an autopsy, as per standard procedure, before transporting him to the funeral home for a Jewish funeral.

As he made coffee and tea for them, Abby and Ducky joined them.

"I spoke to the paramedics, Jethro, and they're saying it was an acute myocardial infarction," Ducky said to Gibbs, quietly. "Possibly brought on by coronary artery disease, which Sharee had admitted Daniel was struggling with, something he never willingly admitted to anyone but Sharee."

"A heart attack?" Gibbs repeated in disbelief.

"And a serious one. From what I was able to gather, the poor man was a ticking time bomb and it was only a matter of time before his heart finally gave out." Ducky sighed heavily. "They say he fought, Jethro, that he fought hard, but he lost."

"My god," Gibbs groaned. "This is going to kill Dabi."

"It won't kill her, but I suspect you are going to have your hands full for a while," Ducky said.

Daniel's funeral was three days later, and done according to Jewish tradition, including Daniel being covered with a plain white shroud, after his autopsy had confirmed the cause of death, and his prayer shawl wrapped around him.

Dabi remembered sitting Shiva with her grandmother, watching people say things to them, but not fully understanding, or caring.

Gibbs, and several other men, including Agents DiNozzo and McGee, helped carry the plain pine box to the grave site, where Daniel would be buried next to his parents, stopping seven times to recite Psalm 91. The rabbi who was taking care of the funeral had not objected when Dabi had insisted on the three men being there, as they had been her grandfather's friends and family, even though they weren't Jewish.

Fran, Ziva, Abby, Ducky, Palmer, and Director Vance had also been there, and so had Eric. Not that she had cared.

She had been cold, constantly cold.

Her mom was gone. The Navy officer was gone, despite her best efforts to help him. Jarvis, the Marine in Oahu, he was gone, having died trying to protect her. Jackson Gibbs was gone. Two weeks later, Ziva was gone, heading back home to Israel after that fiasco with that lawyer and Gibbs. Her dad was going to leave her one day, she was certain of that. Azan was gone.

The world hurt too much.

She didn't know how long because the days seemed to blend into one another. She dropped out of college and started working at the bakery full-time, unable to focus on school. She found out her grandfather had willed her his half of the bakery and made a provision for Fran to rent a room from them for as long as she needed to, somehow seeming to know that the two most important women in his life were going to need support.

And then it happened. Eric tried to take her out on a date, but she just couldn't muster up the emotional strength that it took to even be interested. Instead, she looked at him, and realized it wasn't that she didn't know who he was anymore, it was that she didn't know who _she_ was anymore.

That was when she took the claddagh ring off and laid it on the table. Then she got up and started walking. He didn't try and follow her.

And it started raining.

Gibbs found her sitting in front of the Lincoln Memorial with no idea how she'd gotten there. He took her home, got her dry and warm, and let her sleep. Then he found out what Eric had done and threatened to put a bullet in his knees so he would never be able to chase after a suspect again. The only thing saving him was the fact that he was no longer living with his parents, having moved out at around the same time he started going to college.

Dabi had found the gym a few days after coming back from Hawaii. It was like any other gym, except it was open late at night, and one of the trainers admitted they had a guy who was familiar with sign language. That was Leo. Since she worked during the day, being open late at night was beneficial because it meant that she could go somewhere and beat the hell out of something without worrying Sharee or Fran, or even her dad, knowing he'd had McGee put a tracking app on her phone.

Now, looking at Leo, who had only ever been kind to her at the gym, and seeing him talk about his cat, Rocky, she found herself drawn to his eyes.

"Then you had better go and get some, before he makes your life a living hell," she found herself saying.

"Could use the company," he said.

"I need to go home," she said. "I have to work in the morning."

"What do you do?"

"Bakery. Family run," she said, swallowing hard. And try as she might, a tear slipped out, rolling down her face, and she ducked her head in embarrassment.

Then she felt his hand on her face, his thumb gently brushing the tear away. She looked up, and found him looking at her, compassion on his face.

"C'mere," he said, wrapping his arms around her. Holding her.

He was right; he did have big shoulders.

"Said his name was Leo Benson," she told Gibbs the next morning, at NCIS. Gibor was at the vet, having some tests run because he'd been very lethargic as of late and she was worried about him. The vet had promised to stay in touch with her and would text her as soon as they knew anything. "Works at the gym, lives above it. Has a cat named Rocky, whom he said was named for Rocky Balboa. Studying physical therapy at some college."

"What does your gut say?" Gibbs asked, knowing McGee was listening in and probably already running the name.

She shrugged, holding her coffee. "Gut's a mess these days. Don't know what to think, don't know what to believe."

"Did you go with him?"

She nodded. "He did what he said he was going to do, which is get cat food for Rocky. Didn't make any moves towards me. Signs pretty good though. Said he had a younger brother who was deaf as well." She didn't see the thumbs up McGee gave Gibbs, indicating Leo had been telling the truth. She did glance towards the desk that Ziva had sat at and was now being used by someone Gibbs said was Eleanor Bishop, from NSA. "How's the new girl doing?"

"Eh, time will tell," Gibbs said.

"Cool."

"You hungry?"

"No, but I should eat, and if you're offering…"

"I'm offering."

"I'm accepting. Hey Tim?" she asked, turning to face the other agent. He raised a hand, acknowledging her. "How's the background on Leo going?"

He looked at her, and then looked at Gibbs with a 'How did she know?' look. She smiled at him. "I know you and I know Dad. I told you about Leo so you would run him. What's the uptake?"

"So far he's clean and telling the truth," McGee said. "I even found a cat license for Rocky and a few vet bills, including one for neutering a few months ago. I'll keep digging, but so far it looks like he's on the up and up."

"Okay," Dabi said.

"Usual place?" Gibbs asked her, grabbing his phone and badge.

"Best place," Dabi said, getting up to follow her father.

At their favorite dinner, Dabi admitted she's spoken to the college administrators after one of her former teachers had given her grief over not finishing her courses. "Jerk tried to say I wasn't being fair to myself and ruining my future, as well as wasting his time," she said, munching on a fry.

"What did you do?" Gibbs asked.

"Told him and the administrators I was getting more of an education, both in real life and in business, than they could ever hope to teach me in a classroom. Also told Jerkwad to be an ass on his own time, not mine. I wasn't some irresponsible teenager blowing them off because I thought I could. I was trying to help Nana run a bakery, which is a full-time job, while both of us are grieving, and if he couldn't understand that, or even show a little compassion, then I had to wonder about his personality," Dabi said, shrugging. "Guy was an ass, anyway."

Afterwards, when they were outside and heading back to NCIS, Dabi's phone rang. It was the vet calling, even though Dabi had left specific instructions for them to text her. Gibbs took the call.

"Dabi Moore-Gibbs' phone, this is her father speaking. Yeah, how is he? What? How? Oh hell. All right, okay, I'll let her know. Yeah. Yeah." And he ended the call, looking at his daughter, dreading what he was going to have to tell her.

"Dad, what's wrong?" she asked, seeing the look on her father's face.

"Gibor. He, ah, he had a heart attack at the vet. I'm sorry, Dabi, but he's gone," Gibbs said. He watched as the blood drained from his daughter's face, and then he was lunging forward to catch her as she fainted.

She was back at the gym later that night, but it wasn't for the punching bag. She didn't know why, but she wanted Leo. His arms around her the night before had felt good. And she wanted more of that, more than anything, more than she had wanted with Eric.

"Where is Leo?" she demanded to the receptionist. "You either find him, right _now_, or I will!"

Someone tapped her shoulder and she spun around, ready for a fight, but it was just Leo.

"Hey," he said, having heard her yelling. "What's wrong?"

She stared at him, and suddenly her throat closed up from the tears clogging her. "You said you had big shoulders," she signed, unable to speak.

"Yes," he signed. He didn't sign anything else, just pulled her into his arms, and she went willingly.

_Broken. _She was broken, he realized, and she was reaching for someone she barely knew, simply because he'd offered her friendship and kindness, as she collapsed in grief against him. What the hell was happening with this poor thing?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"So you wound up crashing on his couch?" Fran Tucker asked Dabi the next morning as they sorted through a very large received order of baking supplies.

"Yeah. Rocky is this big walking potato with a fang and legs. Looks like a russet potato that someone forgot to clean the dirt off," Dabi explained, hauling a large bag of flour over her shoulders, to be put in the storage area for now.

"Aww. What about Leo? Is he cute?" Fran asked, grinning, as she followed Dabi, carrying a bag of sugar. Dabi blushed, and Fran grinned even wider. "He's cute," Fran said. "Betcha a cup of Java Joe Ultra that he's got a six pack to rival Chris Evans when he did _Captain America._" Dabi shook her head. "No?"

"Hugh, when he did _The Wolverine_," Dabi said. "I saw it when he came into his kitchen after having a shower. _W-O-W._"

Fran whooped. "Okay, Eric verses Leo, on a scale of one to five, with one being meh, and five being outta this world."

"Eric, two. He didn't work out the way Leo does, but he was physically active. Leo… eight. Out of this galaxy. There's just something different about him. We're not dating, and I really don't want to, not after Eric, but I like being around him. I feel safe with him."

"Does your dad know about him?"

"Ran a full background on him, came up clean. Same with the rest of his family," Dabi said.

"Have you heard from Eric?"

"A few times, but I've ignored them. I don't want to talk to him. I don't want anything to do with him. He says I'm not the girl he knew, and he's right. What happened over there, I see things differently now," Dabi said. Fran looked at the girl who had become one of her best friends, and saw the sadness in her eyes. "With Pop-Pop gone, I don't have time for things like silly-assed dating and making out and stuff like that. I have to help Nana run this place. I'm wondering if Eric even realized that this isn't just a job, this is my life. He said he didn't like me getting into trouble all the time, with Dad and NCIS and all that. Like I had any control over that."

"You don't. It's an accepted fact that Jethro's made quite a few enemies and sooner or later, they're going to figure out who you are, and they will come for you," Fran said, putting an arm around her friend. "The big question becomes what are you going to do about it? Me? I said make sure you know where your baseball bat is and make sure your gun is loaded. If they try and hurt you, hurt 'em harder." Then she smiled. "And as for Eric, he was no big loss. If he can't handle you when you're hurting like the dickens, then he doesn't deserve to be around you when you're at your best."

Two days later, Gibbs stopped by the bakery to check on Dabi. As he made his way through the bakery, he was surprised to see Leo in the back, hauling flour on his shoulders.

"You're Leo Benson," Gibbs said, showing the young man his badge.

"Yes, sir," Leo said, setting the flour down and shaking Gibbs' hand. "How come NCIS is here?"

"Because my daughter works here," Gibbs said.

"Dabi? Dabi is your daughter?" Leo asked, seeing the physical similarities.

"She is, and that means I know all about you."

"Good. She mentioned you were a former Marine but didn't say anything about the whole federal thing, but I can see why," Leo said.

"You know what happened to her?"

"The whole stabby thing in Hawaii? Yeah, she mentioned it. She also told me about the guy known as the village idiot."

Gibbs snorted with laughter. "What are your intentions?"

"Friendship, if that's what she wants. I got pretty big shoulders and I'm used to being used as a pillow. God knows Rocky does it to me often enough," Leo groused. "But I will be honest, sir. She's beautiful, inside and out, and if she decides to take things further, I'm not going to stop her."

"Fair enough," Gibbs said. He took out a business card from his wallet and handed it to Leo. "If something happens, you call me."

"Speed-dial promise," Leo said, accepting the card. "By the way, who are Bishop, McGee, and DiNozzo?"

Gibbs just smirked. "My team, and the rest of her family."

Two weeks later, Dabi was trying not to strangle her father, or his team. It had slowed down enough that Nana convinced Dabi to go have lunch with Leo, who had a little time off between school and his job. That was then. Now, they were being joined by none other than Gibbs, Bishop, McGee, and DiNozzo.

And the questions started. Where did Leo go to school? How long has he been studying? What's his family like? (Father was a former Marine who lost a leg, hence Leo's interest in physical therapy, and one brother who was born deaf, hence his fluency in sign language, plus two other brothers). What was his sports preferences, if he had sports preferences? What about movies? And that was just the first ten minutes.

"_You are all dead,_" Dabi signed rapidly to her father, using the shorthand they had developed over time, glaring at him, her face scarlet.

He smiled. "_Could be worse,_" he signed back.

"_How?_" she signed/demanded.

"_It could be the interrogation room,_" Gibbs signed.

"_He is not one of your suspects!_"

"_No, but you're my daughter, which means I need to keep you safe._"

"_And thanks to Abby I know how to kill you all and make it look like an accident!_"

Time went forward again, and before anyone realized it, three months had passed. Gibbs was at his desk, checking his email, when he realized he'd gotten an email from none other than Fran Tucker. It was a series of photographs of Dabi, dressed in a pretty blue dress with flutter sleeves and a pink and purple floral print all over. Black t-strap winged heels were on her feet, and her hair, once dyed a dark, dirty brown, had been brought back to its natural red, and had been elegantly done up. In the photographs, she was hugging Nana, who was hugging her, and laughing. There was a selfie shot between Dabi and Fran, both goofing off for the camera, followed by one her laughing at someone, likely Fran. Gibbs forwarded that one to McGee, with instructions (more like a demand) to figure out how to get that printed properly.

Fortunately, Fran had included an explanation for the dressing up. Leo had invited Dabi to a family function, specifically his grandmother's birthday, and it was the kind of function that required the guys putting on slacks instead of jeans. His excuse was that his grandmother had been nagging at him to bring home a girl, and his last girlfriend had been as popular as a game of chess at a DJ party. Dabi, on the other hand, was 'just a friend', but that hadn't stopped Leo from giving her a sterling silver heart and Star of David interlocked pendant that Gibbs noticed Dabi wearing the next time he saw his daughter. Leo may have been 'just a friend' but Gibbs would bet his favorite sniper rifle that that could change, if Dabi was willing to give Leo a chance.

One month later::

Dabi glared at her best friend. "I thought you said this dock was supposedly haunted."

"That's according to the rumors," Fran said, looking a bit sheepish.

"That does not look haunted. That looks like a submarine that looks like it's not supposed to be there!" Dabi hissed. "Are there any identification marks?"

"Not seeing any," Fran admitted, as she peered through her binoculars.

"I'm letting Dad know," Dabi said, pulling out her cellphone to send Gibbs a message. "_Sub found. Supposedly abandoned location. Sending McGee pics now_."

She then quickly did just that, sending McGee photos that weren't fabulous, but weren't bad.

She got a message a moment later from McGee. "_Stay where you are! Do not do anything else!_"

"Umm, Dabi?" Fran asked hesitantly, seeing movement further down the docks. "We could have a bigger problem. That looks like a missile."

"That is a very big, freaking missile," Dabi said, eyes wide. Another photo was snapped and quickly sent to McGee.

"Oh hell," McGee said, seeing Dabi's new photo. "Boss, we got a new problem," he said, throwing Dabi's latest photo up on the plasma.

"Where the hell is she?" Gibbs demanded, "and what do we know about that sub?"

"Other than the fact that it's not supposed to be there, right now, not a lot," Bishop said, typing furiously. "I'm doing a comparison as fast as I can on known submarine models, but we don't have a lot of detail."

"That missile could be a problem," DiNozzo said, wincing at the image.

"Ya think?" Gibbs snapped.

"I think I'm calling Vance," DiNozzo said, wisely grabbing his phone.

"I have her location," McGee said, working on his computer. "Know anyone we can bribe, nag, or threaten to get us satellite?" His phone beeped, signalling an incoming message. It was another photo, this one of an unconscious male with a fresh bleeding nose. "Looks like they caught someone. Running facial rec now."

Gibbs swore silently. What the hell had his daughter gotten herself into this time?

Back at the docks, Dabi stared down at the unconscious male she'd managed to sucker-punch when he came around the corner. Now she and Fran were tying him up and frisking him for his wallet or any identification he might have.

"Found his wallet," Fran hissed, holding it up. Dabi quickly sent McGee another photo of the man's driver's license, who replied that she was to be careful but keep the photos coming. He also provided a warning: there was supposed to be a teenager support group in the area, one that helped at-risk kids, and they were supposed to be touring a submarine that had been restored, to give them an idea of what it was like to be a sailor on a submarine. The submarine they were supposed to be touring matched the description of the one Fran and Dabi were looking at, and it was way off course.

"Oh hell," Dabi muttered, showing Fran the message.

"Double that," Fran said, her eyes going wide. "We need to find those guys and fast, because that's not a show missile, that's a big boom missile. Can that sub even fire that missile?"

Dabi sent McGee the inquiry and he responded with, "Checking." A moment later, he replied. "Yes."

"We need to get on that sub and find those kids," Fran said, a determined look coming across her face. "And we need to find out why they're doing what they're doing with that missile."

"We've been told to stay put!" Dabi shot back.

Fran looked at her best friend. "And when has that ever stopped me? If we don't find out what is going on, fast, a whole lotta people could get hurt, like those kids, and I will bet you anything you like they're not gonna use that missile as a party popper! And if that sub goes under water, it will go out of range, and there's no telling what will happen."

Dabi groaned in frustration. "So what do we do? I'm not an agent, I'm just a baker!"

"Yeah, but you can punch with the best of them, and you and I can fake it 'till we make it," Fran said.

Dabi's phone buzzed. "Parker is part of the National Homefront Movement, a white-race based movement dedicated to protecting the ideals of our forefathers, which includes the right to bear arms," Dabi said, reading the information Bishop had just sent her. "We're being told, yet again, to be careful."

"We will."

"We're going on to the sub," Dabi groaned, making sure Parker was secure and gagged. "Have you ever been on a sub before?"

Fran gave her a sheepish look. "Does the ones at the Naval museums count?"

Before they did anything else, Dabi quickly sent Leo a message. She was supposed to meet up with him later for dinner, and it looked like she was going to be a bit late.

"_Is everything okay?_" Leo replied.

"_About to investigate a submarine that may or may not have bad guys. Check with Dad. Will make it up to you. Promise_," Dabi replied.

"You gonna tell that guy you love him or not?" Fran asked.

"No, not yet," Dabi said.

"Why not?"

"Because what he makes me feel scares the hell out of me," Dabi admitted. "It's like nothing I've ever felt before and I don't even know if what I feel is love or not, or if he even feels the same." She shook her head, spared Leo's picture a last glance, and put her phone away. "Let's just leave it at that."

But Fran knew otherwise. Leo was in love with Dabi, because he had told Fran.

"_I know what happened. I know what she had to do to survive, and I know how much she's hurting. Doing what she had to do, that changes a person, especially someone like Dabi. But she's still beautiful, inside and out, and even if it means I have to crawl at a snail's pace to win her love, I will do so, because she already has mine_," he said.

Fran quickly sent Leo a message. "_You're winning. She's feeling things about you that scare her, and is scared you might not feel the same way. Get to Gibbs fast._"

"Is that the hatch?" Dabi asked, seeing someone coming out of the submarine from what looked like a hatch in the submarine's top part.

"Looks like it," Fran said, watching closely. "Let's move in."


End file.
